REVIEW: Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square is Not Your Typical Holiday Movie

Another week closer to the Holiday season means another new Holiday movie from Netflix. This time, the movie is Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square and, though, I love me some good Dolly content, this movie wasn’t my cup of tea.

The movie musical opens days before Christmas as the owner of Fullerville, Regina (Christine Baranski) is handing out evictions to the townspeople as they sing and dance in the town square. Regina is planning to sell the town, so a mega mall can be built in its place. The townspeople, led by its Pastor, Christian (Josh Segarra), have decided to resist the “Wicked Witch of the Middle” and stop her from selling their town. However, Regina is dead set on having her way until a little guardian angel (Parton) steps into her life asking for her to change.

Directed by Debbie Allen, the movie felt disjointed at times. The movie tackles some real life issues like evictions and IVF, which is rare for a Holiday movie, but it never actually delves deep enough into any of them for the audience to really care. The team behind the movie had all the makings of a really great story, but tried to cram too much in to a small amount of time.

The singing also seemed a little out of place at times. In the beginning of the movie, it didn’t sound like the audio was turned up loud enough, so songs, like the opening number, lacked the pizzazz needed to get the audience invested from the get go. It also didn’t help when you hear singers like Jennifer Lewis getting lost in the background because her audio didn’t sound loud enough. Plus, the 14 original songs didn’t really scream Holidays nor did the really help propel the story along.

Parton is a joy as Regina’s guardian angel. From her flashy costumes to her amazing voice, audience goers everywhere will be left wishing that Parton was their guardian angel. Even if you don’t like the movie, you will like her in it. While, Baranski has never had issues pulling off the hard around the edges characters, so this performance is no sweat off her back.

Lewis is great as Regina’s friend and townsperson, Margeline, but there was not enough scenes with her in it. This is one character I would have liked to have seen more from including more scenes with Parton. Jeanine Mason played Regina’s assistant and angel-in-training and does a nice job alongside Baranski and Parton.

Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square has a very Its a Wonderful Life to it, but if you are looking for something like It’s A Wonderful Life, I would recommend watching that. Christmas on the Square was too over the top in some places while in others it didn’t feel over the top enough. The movie may not be for everyone this Holiday season, but if you are looking for something to play while you are doing something else Holiday-filled, this would work perfectly.

Grade: C

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